The Unchanging In A Changing World
As we continue through life, isn’t it amazing how much things change? But there are things that are unchanging. The day has always been 24 hours long, and time has continued since created by God in the beginning. We are told in Psalm 90:2 that God has always been. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Since God has always been, folks seem to expect God to have changed over the years. This is a fallacy man has developed because they don’t read God’s Word. Isaiah 46:5 shows God asking Israel: “To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?” Malachi 3:6 clearly tells us that God is unchanging. For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Even when God’s people Israel persisted in sin, God did not destroy them when they should have perished. There is a great reason for this. The Spirit had the psalmist write in Psalm 89:34 “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” God had a plan from before the beginning of time as we know it. He keeps His Word.
God had chosen the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, also known as the nation of Israel through whom God’s Salvation would come to man. The latter part of Isaiah 46:11 tells us how unchanging God’s plan is. . . .“yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.” God has not changed. He did as He promised. He performed this in accordance to His schedule. Galatians 4:4 - But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, God’s unchanging plan brought together all who will be obedient . Ephesians 1:10 - That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: This was the plan of God from before the world was created. It hasn’t changed.
In Daniel 2:44, we read of the foretelling of the kingdom which God would establish on earth when His Son came to earth. He also told exactly when this was to occur. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. These “kings” were the Roman kings (Caesars), and it was in the days of those kings that Jesus was born, died, was resurrected and ascended. It was also when God sent “power from on high” to His apostles as promised. This was when the gospel was first preached (A.D. 33 on Pentecost) and souls were saved as the people were baptized into Christ. They were added to that unending kingdom as they were obedient. Acts 2:47b - . . . And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
This should give us reason to rejoice, even as many things continue to change in our present world. God does not change. God’s plan for Salvation has not changed, nor will it. God’s love for man has not changed. He has shown His love man from the beginning. This was part of God’s plan. John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This too has never changed. It is very sad that many “misinterpret” the unchanging message from God. Verse 17 shows Christ didn’t come to condemn, but to save. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
God has also provided (providentially) all things that man has ever needed. 2Peter 1:3 is where we can read this. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: This also is unchanging as Jesus told in the Sermon on the Mount about God’s provision toward all humanity in Matthew 5:45b “. . . for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” The same is true spiritually as we are told in 2Thessalonians 2:14 how God “calls” people to Salvation through the preaching of His Word. Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our part is to obey that Word!
As God has provided all we need, and the gospel to tell us how to be saved, we also have a guarantee from God that is as “unchangeable” as God is. We can read it in the latter part of Hebrews 13:5 . . . for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. From this, we should understand that if anyone “changes”, it is us and not God. We, who are subject to change and change of minds, are to strive to serve God in accordance to His Word regardless of the changes that occur in our circumstances and situations. Things had changed in the lives of the Hebrews Christians in the first century. The “old things” had been removed so the final (N.T. Law), the unchanging Law of God could be put in place. Hebrews 12:27-28 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: Are you following that unchanging Law? Obey the gospel today.
Dennis Strickland – Mooresville church of Christ
